


Playing Chess

by Kydran



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters: Black & White | Pokemon Black and White Versions, Pokemon
Genre: Action/Adventure, Adventure, Adventure & Romance, ChessShipping, DualRivalShipping, Eventual Romance, F/M, Romance, Slow Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-13
Updated: 2017-12-13
Packaged: 2019-02-14 05:35:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 20,546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13000962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kydran/pseuds/Kydran
Summary: Touko's been dreaming her whole life about going on a Pokemon Journey, and with the help of a certain someone she finally gets the chance to do so. Although these two don't know it yet, Touko and Touya are about to be put into the biggest conflict of their lives: one that will surely bring them closer together. With Team Plasma on the move to take over the Unova region, how will these two heroes stop the conflict alongside their friends. And how will these two fall for each other? And more importantly, the question of when?





	1. New Girl, New Journey

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please don't be discouraged to not read the next chapter after seeing the butchery I did to the first one. I guarantee you that the next chapter is a lot more detailed with a lot more work put into it. I just made the first chapter overnight in the span of 10 hours while I was sleepy, so it was rushed and sloppy. Since I've already made the second chapter, I don't feel like changing a bunch of stuff from the first chapter (mainly because of time). I might go back and revise this chapter at a later time, but for now please enjoy my full work of both chapters and write a comment and/or review of my works. It really helps me to know where I made mistakes so I try my hardest not to make them on future chapters and works.

**Author’s Note:**

Alright, so I’ve been reading fanfictions for a while now and decided “Meh, might as well do one of my own.” It’s my senior year in high school so I have some more time to do stuff.

I’ve written fanfictions in the past, and even one got pretty popular within the community of the game I based it on (it was a Brave Frontier one). However, it was pretty basic with little detail and mostly dialogue. It was still good, but I felt I could do better on it.

And now I’m here, and, after learning how to actually write well through my English classes, I’m ready to try fanfic writing again.

I haven’t written a fanfiction for years, so take note of this if you want to harshly critique my story. If I have really bad grammar mistakes, it’s probably because I was rushing or I’m tired.

This is going to be a fanfiction about my favorite game, Pokemon Black and White. Also, this is going to be a chessshipping (HilbertxHilda, TouyaxTouko, BlackxWhite, whatever else you call them) fanfic as it’s one of my favorite ships. It’ll have hints of DualRivalShipping in there too (CherenxBianca) just because I do approve of that ship and I don’t want them to feel lonely. I’m going to use Touya and Touka btw, just because I like those names the best.

The story will basically be the same as it would be in the game, it’s just going have both Touya and Touko in it. I’ll twist the story a bit just to make sure both of them being in the story at the same time will work out.

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon. I wish I did, but I don’t.**

* * *

 

**Edit: Changed Eevee's gender from Female to Male.**

* * *

 

 **Playing Chess**  
**Chapter One: New Girl, New Journey**

* * *

  
The young, slender brunette had been sleeping in her comfortable, fluffy looking bed as her messy hair and blanket had shown she was in quite a deep sleep. However, her slumber was awakened by a quick stomping that could be heard, as well as felt, coming up the stairs. As the brunette pulled the messy blanket over her head in an attempt to ignore the abrupt event, the blanket was quickly torn off and bright light overflowed her sight. As the light dimmed down, her eyes were met by the face of an overly-energetic, green-eyed blonde girl with a smile as bright as her eyes.

“TOOUUUKOOOOOO~!!!!” the ecstatic blondie had yelled, still having the blanket in her grip as her smile widened even further.

“Mmph… I’m right in front of you Bianca…You don’t need to yell so loud…” Touko sleepily mumbled, trying to pull the blanket back down as her eyes were kept shut.

“Ehehe~, sorry. But maybe if you’d get up you’d notice that everyone’s getting a Pokémon today!”

Touko’s blue eyes had instantly opened and widened upon hearing the words that emitted from Bianca’s mouth.

“WHAAAAAATTTTTT!?” Touko had jumped out of bed, rushing to her closet as she began to search through her whole pile of clothes that she had never really bothered organizing while tossing out the clothing she didn’t feel like wearing. It was as if she was using Dig and burying herself down into her clothing pile.

Bianca had giggled while watching the brunette fumble around trying to find something to wear.

“You know, maybe if you bothered actually neatly putting away your clothes you’d be able to find what you want to wear.”

“I just moved here last week, gimme some slack. Besides, I don’t wanna hear that from a girl who tried to lick the Professor’s Vanillite thinking it was a Casteliacone.” Touko had smirked at her comeback, thinking to herself Gonna need a burn heal after that Bianca~.

“Heeyyyyy, I was hungry okaaayyyy?” Bianca had puffed her cheeks with a slightly angered expression at Touko, folding her arms in displeasure.

Touko had giggled to herself as her curiosity peaked for a second and then smiled as she took out some clothes she had to dig out just to find. She ran back to her bed and laid out the assortment of clothing she had picked out.

“Okay, sooooo what do you think I should wear?”

“Hmm…” Bianca had stared intensely at the choices she made, however her different fashion style made her shake her head in disappointment.

Touko picked up on her reaction and rolled her eyes in irritation. “Just choose one Bianca, don’t sass my style okay? Thinking you’re a Serperior trying to judge me like that.”

“S-Soooorrrryyy!” Bianca had sighed as she took a look at the clothing choices once more. “Well, what are you trying to do with your style?”

Touko tilted her head in confusion as her blue eyes blinked a few times. “What do you mean?”

“Weeelllll, are you trying to look serious? Look comfortable? Maybe even look cute trying to impress someone hmmmmm??” Bianca had giggled and then looked at Touko intriguingly in wanting to know if she had any interest in any boy as of the moment.

Normally, girls would blush upon hearing such a question. However, because Touko had never really felt any sort of romantic feelings or crushes to anyone, she shook that question off with a “Pfft” and looked the other way without showing any sort of flustered expression. “Please Bianca, all I want to focus on is myself, my friends, and now my Pokémon that I’ll receive today!”

“Well, you’d better hurry with changing today because I don’t even know if Professor Juniper will have any Pokémon left to give out after you’re done changing.”

“Oh crap, you’re right! I gotta hurry now!!!” Touko assembled together the pieces of clothing she favored the most out of the ones on her bed and began to change out of her pajamas. She fumbled around as her hands were wiggling around attempting to get her pants off. She tripped a few times until her bare legs were finally free from the comfortable material.

Bianca’s eyes had widened in surprise as she quickly cupped both her hands over her eyes and turned away in a rapid motion with her body shaking slightly.

Touko had turned to Bianca and looked at her curiously. “Uhhh… what’re you doing Bianca?”

“Daddy always told me ‘Peekers are bad and the worst kind of people! I’ll beat up anyone who ever peeks!’ and I don’t want Daddy to beat me up!”

Touko had looked at her in knowing that she didn’t understand what her father meant and thought to herself I think he meant if anyone ever peeked on you. Nevertheless, Touko then calmly took of her shirt to reveal her bare, slender body. Hers was much more curvaceous than most, with her breasts being a C’ 42 and, most notable, her ass being extremely round. It was so round that even her panties were just about unnoticeable if looking from behind as the material sinks in between her cheeks. She had thick birthing hips which then thins out when going down the rest of her legs. The rest of her almost pale body was pretty slim, as her dark brown hair was so long to the point where it would even reach her lower back.

Bianca noticed her pajama shirt below her, indicating that she had fully removed her pajamas now. As she looked back at Touko, her face once flustered face had flared with jealousy, furiously staring at her curvy body while grinding her teeth together. She turned back around though in order to make her jealousy less noticeable, but to also not get more jealous.

As Touko gripped both sides of her denim short shorts, she placed both her legs through the shorts and began pulling them up only to have them get stuck as they approached her rear. “Eh? I can’t put them on? Has my ass grown even more than since I moved here?” She fumbled the shorts around as she wiggled her lower body in an attempt to get the shorts up, her rear jiggling up and down as the shorts made slight progress in getting past it.

Upon finally getting all her clothes on, Touko just had to make the last finishing touches. She grabbed the hair tie from off her dresser, gathered the long strands of hair that reached her lower back, tied them all together using the hair tie, and put on her favorite white and red cap that she’s had since childhood as she let the tied hair out through the back of the cap. “Done~”

Her outfit adorned: a white tank top that is unable to reach all the way to her shorts due to her breast size, a black waistcoat that was pushed to her sides around her chest area, her denim short shorts that have already been described, a pair of black wristbands with a small pink stripe on them, matching black ankle boots, pink laces and soles, and a pair of black socks underneath.

Bianca’s expression had been dropped as she sighed looking at the time. As she turned around her face turned to shock as she looked at what Touko was wearing. “Uhhh… isn’t that a little too… revealing?”

Touko’s expression turned into a confused one as she didn’t notice anything wrong with it at all. “What do you mean?” She flaunted in her outfit by twirling around and giggling. To her it was super comfortable, regardless of the tight fit around her rear.

Some footsteps could be heard at the staircase, and the person who had just walked up the stairs was a tall, young male with jet black hair and glasses for his black eyes. “Jeez, how long are you two going to stay up here in this house? Everyone’s outside already with their Pokémon.” He had said rather blandly.

“Sooooorrrryyyyy Cheren, Touko was still sleeping in her bed and then took for-ev-er changing her clothes.” Bianca cried out.

“Wha-!? You can’t put all the blame on me!” Touko’s expression because angry now, driving her anger right at Bianca.

“Both of you relax. You can have your Purrloin fight later.”

“Tch.” Touko turned away in irritation.

“Touko, you need to get down right now. Professor Juniper may not have any more Pokémon at this point.” Cheren said with a serious tone this time.

“Oh crap you’re right!” Touko grabbed the pink messenger bag right off the chair it was hanging off of and stormed downstairs to greet her brown haired, blue eyed mother at the bottom.

“Oh, sweetheart you’re finally awake! I guess you’ve already heard from Cheren and Bianca bu-“

“Hi mom, I know, I heard, I’m going, bye mom, love you!” Touka had rushed through her sentence in almost an instant as she stormed out the house the second she got downstairs, leaving a gust of air following shortly behind.

Bianca and Cheren came shortly after Touko’s departure as they looked around only to see the brunette was already gone.

“Er… is she?” Cheren asked with a wide-eyed expression as his index finger pointed to the door.

“Hehe~ You better catch up to her you two. Good luck!” Touko’s mother giggled as she watched the two others dash out the door in chase of Touko.

Touko was zooming through the quaint, little town with her pink messenger bag trailing behind her. As she approached the Professor’s lab she was able to see all the other teenagers frolicking outside the lab, playing with and some even battling with their newly received Pokémon. She began to run even faster due to her jealousy of desiring a Pokémon and watching everyone else with theirs. She couldn’t help but stare at everyone with their Pokémon with no attention as to where she’s running.

“Awww man, I really want-” Without notice, Touko tripped over one of the steps leading up to the lab.”OH CRAP-“ Suddenly, she is caught by someone she isn’t familiar with. It wasn’t Bianca because the piece of clothing they were wearing was blue. It also couldn’t have been Cheren because their hands felt too masculine, much stronger than Cheren’s.

As her head raised, her eyes were face to face with a boy of her age. Both his hair and eyes were a brown color while his hair was covered by his scarlet and black cap, just about identical in shape and material.

“Are you ok?” He said with a calm voice, however his expression showed worry for the young brunette.

“I-I’m ok…” She said with a mumbling tone. She lowered her head slightly so her face would be covered by her cap since she was flustered and blushing. Now she wasn’t blushing due to seeing the boy, she wouldn’t fall that easily of course. Her mind was more on how many people just saw her trip just about now and how many are staring at her mistake.

The boy smiled with understanding her situation as he grabbed both her shoulders and stood her up straight. Touko looked up at the boy as she was still shaking in her knees from embarrassment, but she tried not to show her embarrassment to others on her face.

“Eager to get a Pokémon, eh?”

“Erm… y-yeah…” She would say more, but her thoughts were jumbled as of the moment.

“All our journeys begin with a single step. Make sure you take yours carefully.” He said to her by referencing her trip on the first step to the lab, still keeping his smile.

Touko felt more reassured now as the boy let his hands go of her shoulder and walked around her to go down the last step. Touko stared at the boy as he walked off in the direction of a house, which she assumed was his house. Although his last words were only a nitpick at her embarrassing situation, she replayed them in her head as an indication that this was her beginning.

Cheren and Bianca had finally caught up to Touko as they both walked up to her. Bianca going around her, checking for any bruises while Cheren was slightly worried about the ordeal.

Based on their reactions, Touko could only assume that they saw her trip and sighed in displeasure of herself. “Please tell me you both didn’t see that.”

As Bianca began running around her now, checking for more bruises, Cheren had nodded firmly while Touko’s head and upper body had just dropped with her arms hanging down.

“And you say I’m the clumsy one, hehe~” Bianca said cheekily.

“You are the clumsy one Bianca. You make 5x the number of mistakes in a day than the average person should in a year.” Cheren said to Bianca seriously.

Touko giggled at the sight of both of them. Regardless of how long Touko has been here or how much they seemingly fight, they’re all still good friends through and through. “Cmon guys, let’s get my Pokémon!” Touko excitedly exclaimed as she carefully ran up the lab’s stairs, with both Bianca and Cheren following her.

As the doors open, Touko’s eyes begin to bulge with excitement. Her heart beats so fast that the thumping could even be heard from outside of her. She was shaking in her boots, awaiting to meet with her brand-new Pokémon.

A cheeky professor had turned her attention to what had just come through the door to find 3 teenagers, two of which she had already met and seen but one that she does not seem to recognize. “Ah, Cheren, Bianca, why hello you two! And your friend, it’s quite nice to meet you. What can I help you 3 with?”

Cheren perked up his glasses. “Good to see you again Professor Juniper, we were hoping our good friend here would be able to receive a Pokémon.”

Touko ran up to the Professor in with overflowing joy, ecstatic in what awaits next. “H-Hi! I’m T-T-Touko White and I-I’m here to r-receive my n-new Pokémon!” She could barely speak, all that was on her mind was her Pokémon.

“O-Oh…” Juniper’s expression had dropped as she turned away and sighed. “I’m so sorry to disappoint you Touko, but… sadly I don’t have any more Pokémon to give out. Everyone who came earlier by got theirs already. I’m deeply sorry Touko…”

Touko was immensely shocked as her upper body dropped and her expression turned miserable. “N… No way… There’s no more left…? I… I can’t get a Pokémon…?” She was on the verge of tears as her knees gave out and instantly fell and sat on the floor, her legs bent and spread apart with her arms holding her up from faceplanting into the ground.

Bianca’s eyes widened and ran over to her in a rush as she kneeled down next to Touko and patted her back in an attempt to cheer her up. “D-Don’t worry about it Touko! Cheren and I got our Pokémon, so you could use them to get a Pokémon of your own!”

Touko sniffled, her arms were shaking at this point as she felt like collapsing. “N-No… it’s alright… I want my first battle to be with my first Pokémon anyway… I’ll just… I’ll just wait until I can get another from the professor…”

“But I want us to travel the Unova Region together! Touko…” Bianca began to tear up as well, not just because her friend was unable to receive her Pokémon but also because she wants to start her journey together with her friends.

“I-I can see when I’ll get the next batch of Pokemon to pass out to everyone, however for now you’ll have to wait... and I don’t know when it’ll be so…” Juniper attempted to reassure Touko, however her attempts were futile as well as Bianca’s.

“It’s alright guys… it’s only gonna be a few weeks or months… Hopefully… I-I’ll catch up so it’ll be fine!” Touko took her hands and rubbed her eyes with a quick motion as she looked back up to her friends with a big smile, not a truthful one however. Her eyes still holding tears within them as her wiped tears stay dripped off of her hands.

Cheren and Bianca were not convinced, as both of them decided to pick Touko back up and smiled at her in care for her feelings.

“Touko, you may not have been our friend for a while, but you’ve shown that you’re someone with true determination and aspiration for the journey ahead of her. I want to see that happen right before my eyes with you.” Cheren caringly said as he placed his hand on Touko’s shoulder to help her feel more positive.

Bianca wrapped both her arms right around Touko’s shoulders for a wide hug as she pressed her pale cheek against Touko’s soft one. “Yeah! And if you don’t come along then I have to journey with Cheren by myself and that’s… w-well… I wouldn’t want people thinking we’re a couple for anything like th-that!”

“Hmph, well without me around it seems like you wouldn’t know what the difference is between a Pokeball and a Foongus.” Cheren mocked her with a slight smirk.

“H-Hey! How do you guys even remember this type of stuff!?” Bianca retreated her hands back to herself in embarrassment.

Touko has been giggling throughout their back and forth as her smile has returned back to her face. “It’s because you do this type of thing on a daily basis Bianca, and I hope to see more of it when we go on our journey together.”

Bianca smiled ever so ecstatically while Cheren smiled with a relieved expression, both of them now awaiting the day Touko would receive her Pokémon so all 3 of them would venture together. Outside the lab doors, however, the brown haired and brown eyed boy had been listening on the conversation. As he hid on the right side of the exit, he channeled back everything the 3 had just said, especially Touko, and thought for a moment with hesitation. Should I…? It was a gift after all… But… She wants… No… She needs it for her dream… For her friends… The boy had run off back to his house, with assurance in what he needs and what he’ll do for Touko. With such determination in her body, he didn’t want her to wait. He wanted to see what she could do. He felt it inside him that if he gave her this chance now, she’d go on to do great things. And, most likely, he’d hope to see her do such things in person.

He had stormed back into his house, slamming the door wide open as his mother was surprised by the sudden entrance of her son.

“T-Touya? What’s wrong? Did something happen? I thought you went off al-”

“Sorry mom! No time!” Touya yelled as he ran right upstairs to his desk that held a Pokeball on top. He looked at it with hesitation for one last time before taking it and running back downstairs.

“T-Touya what’s the ru-” His mother could barely get her words out to her rushing child.

“Love you mom! Bye!” Touya said with such a quick speech that it was almost too fast to understand as he ran out and closed the door behind him. He noticed that the 3 were coming down the steps now, Touko happily smiling at both her friends. He was happy that the young brunette was better now, when it came to anyone he could never turn himself away from those miserable. With a relieved sigh, he began to walk over to the 3 with the Pokeball in hand.

As the 3 descended from the lab, all of them were discussing their future journey and what their goals are.

“So, we’re going to start when Touko gets her Pokémon right?” Bianca asked for an assured answer.

“That’s correct. It doesn’t matter how long it’ll take either, the 3 of us begin together.” Cheren said with an assured while perking up his glasses.

“Thank you both, really, to have you both at my side are possibly the best two things that could’ve ever happened in my life. I’m grateful to have friends like you guys at my side after having moved so far away from my home in Castelia city. Honestly, it’s sad that I don’t have a Pokémon, but with you two with me I don’t have any idea as to how my days coming could get any better!” Touko said with the most cheerful expression before being slightly interrupted.

“Maybe this’ll help.” Touya had said as he approached the 3. As they all turned their attention to him, Touya threw the Pokeball to Touko as her eyes widened and jumped up to catch and grip it in her hands. She held it in awe as it’s shiny, clean texture glistened in the sun.

She looked back up and realized that it was the same boy who had saved her from earlier. “Wait… It’s you! The guy who saved me when I tripped!” Then after shortly realizing what she said, she got embarrassed by reminding herself of what just happened.

Bianca and Cheren looked up, only for them to see a face they were familiar with.

“Ah, if it isn’t Touya.” Cheren said calmly.

“Oh! Touya! Hey hey! Sorry that it’s been a while!” Bianca happily exclaimed as she rubbed the back of her head.

Touya chuckled at the two. “It’s alright, I assume you’ve been showing her around and hanging out with her quite a bit.” Touya directed his statements to Touko as she can’t help but stare at what might be inside.

As Bianca and Cheren were about to discuss further with Touya, Touko got her words in first by asking, “So what’s inside???”

His attention directed to Touko now, he smiled and simply said, “Well why don’t you send it out? It’s yours now.”

Touko’s expression was at an utter shock at this point from what had just been said. She turned her head upwards to look at Touya, all for her to notice that he was serious about what he just said. It was really hers now. It was her first Pokémon.

“Alright then… come on out!” Touko threw the Pokeball into the air with curious excitement. As the ball opened, a stream of light flowed right out and hit the ground. The light took form into a shape that usually is not seen in the Unova region. Then, the Pokémon that came out was something she thought she’d never see.

All the new teenage Pokémon owners had directed their attention to the sent-out Pokémon as all their faces were turned into shock, surprise, awe, jealousy, or all of the above.

Touko’s mind was completely blown. “It’s… It’s a… I… It’s a…. a…. E… Eev…!”

Touya had enjoyed her expression as he laughed slightly and then brought his own words in to finish hers. “Eevee. It’s an Eevee.”

“WHAAAAATTTT!? WHY!? HOW!? AND TOUKO GETS TO HAVE IT!?” Bianca was all over the place as of the moment, out of shock but mainly jealousy of the cute little furry Pokémon.

“W-Woah… An actual Eevee… I… I don’t believe it…” Even Cheren was blown away by the sudden appearance of this Pokémon.

As the Eevee was sleeping from within its Pokeball to out of it, it yawned in a soft voice and slowly arose from slumber. Its ears perked up at the sight of all the trainers around it, however it was not afraid of anyone around and simply smiled in an adorable fashion.

Touko was unable to move, her brain had melted from the sight of such a Pokémon along with it being her first Pokémon too. The Eevee turned its head towards Touko, where it noticed its Pokeball in her hand and walked over to Touko in belief that she’s its trainer. Eevee grazed its soft little fur against Touko’s bare bottom leg as Touko was nearly about to fall back due to its cuteness.

“Now now, don’t collapse before you’ve even started your journey.” Touya trying to hold back his laughter at everyone’s reaction.

Touko snapped back to reality and gained back her thoughts as she began tearing up at the thought of finally having one. The thought of finally having a Pokémon. She slowly kneeled down as she picked it up and cradled the young creature in her arms. “I can’t believe it… I really can’t believe it… Y-You’re absolutely sure?? I can have your Eevee???”

Touya walked up to her and kneeled down to be at eye level with her “It’s your Eevee now, and of course.” Touya patted Eevee’s head softly as it nuzzled against his hand.

“Where… did you even find an Eevee…?” Cheren’s curiosity was still at its peak, yet his shock still denied him from saying his words calmly.

“It was… well it was a gift from my mother passed from my father. He was a trainer from Kanto who had moved to Unova to find a new challenge for his journey. Along the way he had met my mother, and eventually they started travelling together. The story from there is self-explanatory, and eventually both of them stopped journeying to settle down and begin a family. Where my father is now… I don’t exactly have an idea. However, when I turned 9 my mother handed me that Pokeball with that Eevee inside and told me ‘If you wouldn’t like to take it for your own journey, give it to someone you can trust. It was your father who passed it to me, but I’ve had my share of Pokémon battling for a whole lifetime.’ I’m not the best trainer, not by a longshot. I don’t have what it takes to be a good trainer in my book, but you have the ambition to be one. And so, I trust you Touko with that prized Pokémon. What I heard in that lab was someone I knew would give it her all for her friend and Pokémon. There’s nobody else I would trust it to.” Touya closed his eyes as he smiled with a gentle warmth from it. It was his honest words to Touko, and she knew that she could trust him too.

“Thank you… thank you so much Touya…” There was only joy in Touko right now, upon gazing back down at her now first Pokémon, everything she’s dreamt about can finally come true.

Some of the trainers that were outside of Juniper’s lab have dispersed, while those who still remained muttered about the situation of Eevee, mostly out of jealousy of course for the Pokémon not found in the region at all.

Cheren, after finally calming down, perks up his glasses and smiles. “Well guys, what are we waiting for?”

“Huh?” Both Bianca and Touko said in a synchronized manner.

“Let’s go start our Pokémon journey.” Cheren reminded to the both of them.  
Both of their faces lit up in joy upon hearing Cheren’s words and got up in a rush. Eager and ready to go, Bianca rushed down to the entrance of Route 1 as Cheren shook his head and smiled at the blondie’s expression as he followed behind her walking.

“Aren’t you going to follow them?” Touya asked.

“I feel as if I should go see my mom first… I don’t think she knows I’m going off on a journey just yet.” Touko sighed in worry of her mother.

“I think she’d notice if her clumsy daughter wasn’t tripping on steps around her every day.”

“Are you talking about me and my mom or Bianca and hers?”

“Valid point.”

They both exchanged a bit of laughter before they both began walking to their respective homes.

“Why are you going to your house?” Touko wondered since his mom would seemingly know about his journey.

“I need to go tell my mom about Eevee, I think she’d be a little bamboozled and heartstruck if she found out he went missing.” Touya chuckled slightly.

“Ohhhh, it’s a female Eevee.”

“Yeah, kinda forgot to mention that. But yep, your prized first is a HEevee.” Touya nudged Touko to get her to acclaim him for his ever so amazing play on words.

Touko rolled her eyes in an unpleased fashion and crossed both her arms which lifted her breasts to slightly reach over them. “If you battle as well as you tell jokes, you won’t beat the first gym at all. Let alone reach it.”

Touya laughed as he fixed his cap and looked at Touko with a confident smile. “Well then, oh so determined trainer, let’s see if you can do any better than me hm?”

“I’m down for such a challenge, but there better be a reward afterwards.” Touko smirked with a devious expression.

“Alright, how about whoever beats the first gym first has to buy the other person lunch?”

“Deal, that wallet better be full if you want to pay for what I eat.” She licked her lips in anticipation.

“First Pokémon and now food, there’s always something you’re chasing after isn’t there?”

“Depends on what I’m feeling. At first, I thought with my heart, now I’m thinking with my stomach.”

Once again, the two exchanged an equally joyous laughter and departed upon both of them reaching their houses. As the two discussed to their parents about their situations, both of their parents had simply hugged them for the last time and wished both their brown-haired children a good luck on their journey as they walked away from their houses and together to Route 1.

“So, that’s your Touya hm?” Touko’s mom pointed out.

“And that’s your Touka eh?” Touya’s mom had noticed.

“With those two on their journeys at the same time… what do you think will happen?”

“Who knows? Maybe we might become sisters.”

“They’re still children, you’d think that far?”

“And how exactly did you meet your husband again? Hmm?”

“Heheh, good point. This journey won’t only strengthen their bond with their Pokémon, but with each other too. This could become interesting for the two.”

Both mothers shared a giggle in what they could imagine happening between the pair of new, eager trainers ready to take the battle of Unova itself.

* * *

Touko and Touya reached the entrance of Route 1 where they were met by Cheren and Bianca who’ve been waiting there for what seems like forever for them, but only 10-15 minutes for Touko and Touya.

“Took your time, didn’t you both?” Cheren looked to them in an unsatisfactory way.

“Yeah, you both took for-ev-er!” Bianca said to the both of them as she puffed her cheeks at them.

“Cmon guys, it wasn’t even 20 minutes we were gone. Relax, we all made it here.” Touya tried calming the situation down, even though it was just Cheren and Bianca who were irritated. “Well, you 3 are starting your journeys together right? I’ll move on ahead so- “

“You don’t want to come with us?”

“Sorry Touko but… I’m gonna go on my own for a little bit. That doesn’t mean I won’t run into you guys though, but I need to get into the habit of battling first. I’m gonna stay in Route 1 in a while to train and I don’t want to hold you guys back. You guys should meet with the professor since she’s holding a guide for how to catch Pokémon and where Pokémon Centers will be located and such. Don’t worry about it, we’ll still be taking this journey side by side.”

All 4 of them smiled at the last words said, an assurance that the 4 of them will journey together whether it be next to each other or just a few steps away.

“Well, if we’re going to journey side by side we might as well take our first steps side by side.” Bianca said with her bright expression back.

“Oh yeah, Bianca said she wants us to take our first steps into Route 1 together. I don’t think it’s such a bad idea. Shall we?”

Touko and Touya both looked at each other and nodded yes as the both looked to Bianca and Cheren and walked over to them. All 4 placed each other side by side ordered from left to right: Cheren, Bianca, Touko, and Touya. Each of them held hands with each other, which each of them didn’t have a problem with except Bianca who seemed all flustered with holding Cheren’s hand and was unable to look at him the entire time. All of them took one deep breath and one step forward as they all walked into the first Route together.

To Touko, this was the true first major step in her journey. Side by side with her friends, she took the first step into the path of her adventure. What awaits her? And what will happen with her friends? That will all be answered later. For now, this new girl begins her new journey.

* * *

It got kinda rushed at the end, I realize. The details weren’t really there at the end and I kinda wish I did better, but I started writing this at 10 PM and finished this at 8 AM so it basically took me 10 hours to write this. It’s not much but this is the beginning of my first fanfic.

Now to go to sleep, then wake up and have 2 hours to do things only to sleep again because I have school.

I would like some feedback through review, any feedback is helpful to me. I am rusty at this so any help for me is appreciated. I’ll try to update as soon as possible each time. I dunno if it’ll be as long as this one, or rather not have half of it be unnecessary fanservice while having the other half be progress, but I’ll see what my time schedule is.

I hope to finish this before my senior year ends because college will provide no time for me to do anything. Anyway, thanks for reading and stay eager for the next update.


	2. Chapter 2: What is the Truth? And why are there Ideals?

**Author's Note:**

Hey guys, I'm back to write chapter 2. I know it's been a little while since I wrote chapter 1, but I had to finish up some stuff for school first (reading a 600-page book in about a week or less really gives no time to do anything else surprisingly). I'm finally done with that though and I'm ready to get back into this.

I probably won't be able to get one out this week because I have SATs coming up. I can try, but just a word of warning.

Also, I kind of had to start a new Pokémon White game because I don't exactly remember the full story and I don't want to look up let's plays or walkthroughs cause they all kind of tend to ramble on or do unnecessary things. So that may take up a little bit of time.

The reason I'm saying all this, by the way, is because I want to send upload a new chapter at least by every week if I can so that I know I'll be able to finish this by hopefully the time I graduate.

Last chapter was all mainly introduction to Touko, so I'll try to do more detail into describing Touya, Bianca, and Cheren in this chapter and maybe some other characters as well.

Anyways, I shouldn't keep the author's note too long so I'll put the rest of my thoughts at the bottom. Let's jump right into this everyone. Thanks for waiting and enjoy my rusty efforts at fanfiction writing.

**Disclaimer: *disclaims about not owning Pokémon***

* * *

**Playing Chess**

**Chapter Two: What is the Truth? And why are there Ideals?**

As Touko, Touya, Cheren, and Bianca all stepped out onto the breezy route at the same time, each one of them turned to each other and gave one another a friendly, satisfactory smile.

"OH. MY. ARCEUS. We have o-ficc-ia-lly started our journey together!" Bianca exclaimed with a smile so big you'd think it'd cover up her whole face.

"And now our true challenges await. Let's not keep them waiting." Cheren said with a smirk for the desire of what to learn out on his journey as he perked up his glasses.

"I think you should learn how to actually catch Pokémon first." Touya pointed out as Cheren tried to act so calm and cool.

"Says the guy who isn't used to battling." Touko teasingly said to Touya.

"Well how about you go on ahead and meet up with the Professor if you're such an "expert" at battling Ms. Woke up too late to get her Pokémon." Touya teasingly claimed back to Touko.

The two brown-haired children glared at each other while gritting their teeth; it was almost as if there was thunder striking between their expressions. It was clear as day that a rivalry had formed.

"Would you two please stop acting like children? You both have the expression of a Darmanitan right now." Cheren shook his head in disappointment at the two.

"Oh, please Cheren, don't try to look down on us when you were the one who thought Cinccino was actually Cappuccino." Touya smirked to Cheren.

Touko began to chuckle uncontrollably. "He actually thought a coffee was a Pokémon?" Her chuckles almost instantly turned into bright laughter as Touya began to join her.

Cheren folded his arms in an attempt to ignore to two brown-haired "annoyances" that he called them as of the moment. He simply just perked up his glasses and turned around, facing the direction of the rest of the route. "Whenever you two are done bickering, meet Bianca and me at where the Professor is holding the demonstration. Let's go Bianca." Cheren waved his hand over to him, signaling for Bianca to come and follow him.

"R-Right! Hurry if you wanna see how to catch Pokémon Touko~!" Bianca quickly walked over to Cheren as the two of them walked further into the route, towards Professor Juniper.

"You should catch up quickly and learn how to catch Pokémon, if you don't then you'll just be another step behind me and giving me one more step towards my free lunch." Touya confidently smiled at the brunette.

"Hmph. I'll wipe that cocky grin off your face before you even know it, just you wait Touya." Touko puffed her cheeks as her arms stretched down her sides while glaring at Touya.

"Whatever you say short stuff." Touya chuckled as Touko was a few inches shorter than him. "I'll see you around, don't wait up for me." Touya turned around with his hands in the pockets of his dark grey, baggy pants as he began to walk towards the lake that was on the side of the route.

"Don't expect me to! Better catch up quickly to me or else that lunch is mine and we'll know who the true better trainer is!" Touko quickly turned around as she "Hmph"ed and walked towards were Professor Juniper was holding her demonstration, her expression still with the puffed cheeks and now closed eyes while having her arms folded.

Touya laughed under his breath at the last few words that were said by Touko, but he also smiled quite happily. He's never met someone like her nor had a friend that was so passionate about Pokémon like he is. Sure, he's had Bianca and Cheren, but they don't see Pokémon, battling, and journeying like he does. Bianca is always ecstatic about all subjects pertaining to Pokémon, yet she was always more fascinated by things that Touya didn't see an interest in such as modeling and contests (even though they weren't in Unova). Cheren was more into learning about the aspects of Pokémon, how battling works, but he wasn't passionate about actually battling; he was more into learning than doing. Touya and Touko share a similar personality when it comes to their similar passions. They're driven to it, they seek the goals they make for it and battle their hearts out to reach their goals. This is someone Touya needed on his journey, but in what way would he "need" her? Who knows? He just knows that him and her are going to be together on this journey more than they'll expect each other to be.

He whispered to himself so that nobody else, especially Touko, would hear him. "I can't wait to see what you'll show me, Touko." His smile grew a bit wider after saying that as he continued to walk until his scarlet red shoes were right on the edge of the lake.

The breeze allowed the back cloth of Touya's black T-shirt and sky-blue hoodie to sway behind him. He took his hands out of his pockets to adjust his cap and perk it up a bit so his eyes weren't covered, one hand on the back while the other on the top. Upon lifting the top to reveal his eyes, he noticed a small, avian-like blue Pokémon fly across the lake and end up on one of the trees nearby him. It donned a white, feathery ruff that extended down past its neck with a large red and white feather that extended from its forehead. Touya was dumbfounded at first as it wasn't a Pokémon he had seen around the area; however, he remembered what the Pokémon was from glancing at his father's Pokédex years ago. His eyes widened and his jaw slightly dropped as he quickly went for the Poké Ball that was attached to his belt. "No way… is that…?" He slowly walked towards the avian-like creature as Touko had caught up to Cheren and Bianca and all the other new trainers that came out to where the Professor was in the middle of demonstrating how to catch a Pokémon.

"Finally made it, eh? You almost missed all of the demonstration." Cheren said to Touko with a blank expression.

"It's not my fault Touya was being annoying." Touko still complaining about Touya's teasing.

"Shhhh! I'm trying to heeeaaarrrr!" Bianca exclaiming to both of them as she was so loud that it caught everyone's attention.

"You just spoke louder than both of us, and now people are staring." Cheren tapped his foot.

Bianca looked around at everyone with a flustered expression as she's now embarrassed of her actions. "S-Sorry…"

Professor Juniper laughed with a soft smile. "No need Bianca, I'm sure we're all eager and would like to learn how to catch Pokémon. Now, we were just in the middle of trying to find a Pokémon, correct?"

The cheeky professor looked around the tall grass a bit before noticing a long tail standing upright with a scruffy, white tip as whatever it was attached to had scurried around in the grass. "Found it~." Juniper expanded the Poké Ball that was in her hand and readied herself in a composed manner. "Come on out, Minccino!" Juniper had tossed the ball into the air as it opened up from the center and a stream of light flowed right out of the Poké Ball to the ground in order to form the shape of a chinchilla-like creature. When the light had dispersed, what had emerged from it was a furry, gray little creature with large ears and quite the fluffy looking tail. In Touko's mind, it looked like a gray Eevee; of course, Touko thought her Pokémon was much better than that. However, from Bianca's perspective, it was something she desired as her face lit up as if it was using Flash upon seeing the adorable little thing.

The creature that was hidden in the grass had noticed the presence of another Pokémon as its tail shook a bit and it began to scurry away.

"Oh no you don't~. Quickly Minccino, use Pound!" The gray little creature sprung forward and met its paw with the side of the creature who's attached to the long, upright tail that was seen earlier. As the creature rolled sideways due to the power of the attack, it was revealed to be a chipmunk-like brown Pokémon with a large bucktooth emerging from its mouth and a black band that covers its yellow and red eyes that makes it seem almost like a mask.

"Aha, I figured it was a Patrat. Now then, after that attack it should be ready…" Juniper reached into her lab coat pocket and pulled out another Poké Ball, however this one seemed to be for a different purpose.

Out of rage along with being in the midst of battle now, the Patrat used Leer against the Minccino as Minccino shuddered slightly at the Patrat's expression, lowering its guard and defenses. However, there wasn't much Patrat could do as the attack from Minccino had weakened it to the point where it was panting and shaking its legs as it struggled to even stand upright.

"Now as everyone can see, the Patrat is much more weakened now due being attacked by Minccino. One attack may not always do the trick, but sometimes it might. Once it's weakened enough to this state, if you want you may throw an empty Poké Ball at it at an attempt to capture it." And with that note, the professor had tossed the Poké Ball right at the Patrat as it bonked right on Patrat's head and opened up from the middle again. A stream of light flowed out of this one, however this time the light surrounded the Patrat as it turned the Patrat into a form of energy which then pulled it back into the hollow center of the Poké Ball and closed. The Poké Ball then fell back down and landed within the luscious, green grass as the button on the center of the ball lit up a faint red while shaking side to side along with a faint beeping noise emanating from the ball. Everyone stood and stared in awe and suspense as the ball was continuously shaking side to side as everyone was anticipating when it would stop. After a few more shakes, the ball had eventually stopped as white sparkles emanated from the ball and a final beep that was louder and different from the others had signaled the capture of the Pokémon. All the new trainers around Juniper, which included Touko, Cheren, and Bianca, had exclaimed and some slightly rejoiced over the capture of the Pokémon as they all clapped their hands at the Professor's demonstration. The cheeky professor had snapped her fingers and smiled joyously. "And that's how you do it~."

The Professor had walked over to pat Minccino on her head as the furry chinchilla had climbed up onto the right shoulder of Juniper while Juniper had grabbed the Poké Ball of the just now captured Pokémon with her left hand and stood up to look at everyone. "As everyone can see here, in order to capture a Pokémon easier, you must weaken it first. Sometimes, you might be able to capture a Pokémon without even attacking it. You could just toss the Poké Ball right away; however, that requires quite a bit of luck, and even more so if it's a much stronger Pokémon you're trying to capture. The strength of a Pokémon also determines how hard they might be to capture. Weaker Pokémon aren't as difficult as they are not strong enough to struggle as much as stronger Pokémon are. The Pokémon around here aren't as strong as the ones you may encounter later on. What you can find around here are Lilipups and Patrats, which is the Pokémon you just witnessed me catch. You might also find Audinos around here if you're lucky enough, but I haven't seen many lately. There are some other things to take note of if you're trying to capture any Pokémon:

1\. Although the normal Poké Ball can always be used to capture any Pokémon, sometimes a different Poké Ball might be better depending on the situation. You could use Great Balls or Ultra Balls to increase your chances of capturing any Pokémon. You might even use Net Balls for Bug Types or Dive Balls for Water Types.

2\. Just about all status effects can help make the chances of capturing a Pokémon easier as it weakens the Pokémon's overall state. The best status effects to use, however, are sleep and paralysis.

There is also a special kind of capture that may occur called Critical Capture. This essentially allows the Pokémon to be captured in one Poké Ball. However, this is a very rare occurrence that happens more often if you capture more and more Pokémon frequently. Also, take note to remember that you may only have 6 Pokémon in your party in all times. So, make sure to always check on which Pokémon you want to bring with you." Juniper had shrunken the Poké Ball down to its smaller shape as she placed it and both her hands in her lab coat. "Remember to always be stocked up on Poké Balls and have fun catching Pokémon on your journey~!"

The crowd had roared in a determined cheer as everyone scattered off. Some trainers had grouped up and others went on their solo path with all of them heading off to do different things. Some went around searching for Pokémon to battle and/or catch, others headed off to Accumula Town which was located past the end of the route, and the rest went ahead to already challenge each other in battle. With everyone here so eager to go off into their journeys, Touko knew she'd see many familiar faces along her journey.

"Quite the demonstration, can't wait to try it out myself." Cheren had pulled out his own Poké Ball, ready to find some Pokémon of his own.

"Well you're going to need some Poké Balls yourself if you actually want to catch some." Juniper walked up to the three young trainers as she waved with a bright expression.

"Oh wow~! Are you gonna give us some~!?" Bianca's eyes sparkled with anticipation.

"Well of course, what kind of professor would I be without rightfully helping the new trainers of my region?" Juniper pulled out a bag of regular Poké Balls as there were 5 for each trainer. "You 3 are the last I have to give these to so split them up evenly." Each trainer grabbed 5 Poké Balls each as each of them were eager to jump into the tall green grass that held their next potential partner. "One more thing before each of you head off into the grass."

"Hm?" The three said in sync as they all looked up to look at Professor Juniper.

"Here~" The Professor held out 4 rectangular devices each with different colorings and a square screen at the upper portion of the device with a Poké Ball design underneath that stretches so far down the device that the entire design doesn't complete. Cheren took the blue one, while Bianca took the yellow one. Touko laughed a bit under her breath as it the colors they chose actually match what they're wearing. Touko took the hot pink one, however she was also handed the dark red one.

Touko tilted her head to side in confusion as she wondered why she was given two. "Uhhh… What's the other one for?"

"Well obviously for Touya of course. You seem to be the closest one to him so I figured you'd run into him so you can give him it for me." Juniper held the bag that originally contained the empty Poké Balls in one hand while her other hand rested within the pocket of her lab coat.

Touko scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Me? Closest to Touya? Sure, when Tepigs fly."

"Oh, there are many things that can surprise you." Juniper winked at Touko.

"Wait, Tepigs can actually fly!?" Touko began to imagine in complete and utter awe.

"N-No that's not what I… oh you'll figure out sooner or later. For now, let me explain what these are." The Professor recomposed herself as she coughed into her hand to clear her throat and looked at the three once more with her soft smile. "The device I have just handed the 3 of you is a Pokédex, it is a handheld encyclopedia device; one which is capable of recording and retaining information of the various Pokémon of the world. As a professor, it is my duty and dream to record and learn of every known Pokémon in the world. However, us professors don't have much time ourselves to go out into the world and find every single Pokémon there is known to mankind. That is why we task all trainers to go out on their journey and help us record all the Pokémon they find on their journeys and, hopefully, fill the whole Pokédex."

Touko seemed confused by the whole explanation, and mainly for the one thing she was going to ask about. She turned to the professor with a dissatisfied look. "But you've been a professor for years, you're saying you've never ever recorded Pokémon data yourself? You've never gone out of your lab and ever used this thing? And if it can record all the information about the Pokémon that we record when we first see it, why doesn't it just fill itself since it already has all of that information?"

Juniper shrugged. "I dunno, go ask Professor Oak if you ever see him. He made the thing, we just follow his 'professional ways'."

"And look at all the Pokémon we have right now, has anyone even completed this whole entire thing before?" Touko complained to the Professor who couldn't say yes to that question even if she wanted to.

"Well… of all the Pokémon that we have up to date? No. But there was one trainer who completed it long, long ago… It was back when we only knew of the first 151 Pokémon. He completed the entire Pokédex, and he even went to become the champion of the Kanto region. Most people know him as the true champion, or the first champion, considering that the one before him didn't even hold his title for 15 minutes." Juniper shook her head as she was getting off topic. "A-Anyways, I won't force you to do so, but it is a dream of mine so be sure to use those whenever you can! I'll be heading off to Accumula Town to continue a demonstration of where Pokémon Centers/Marts are and how they will work so if you'd like to catch me there in order to find out yourself, just head upwards past the route and into the town. See you there." The Professor waved back to the trainers as she walked off, through the tall grass and into the town up ahead.

"So… we can finally catch Pokémon…" Cheren had his hand rest on his chin faintly until he overheard the small cry of a Pokémon nearby his vicinity. "Hm? What was that?" Both Touko and Bianca looked to Cheren speaking his thoughts aloud as Cheren turned to the direction of the cry as he found a light brown, canine Pokémon with an abundance of fur covering just about all of its face frolicking around within the tall grass.

"A Pokémon?" Touko took out her Pokédex in order to record information on the Pokémon they have just laid eyes on.

_**Pokédex Entry #012: Lilipup – The Puppy Pokémon.** _

_**The long hair around its face provides an amazing radar that lets it sense subtle changes in its surroundings.** _

"Lilipup huh?" Cheren grabbed a Poké Ball from his belt and expanded it, gripping it lightly as he readied himself to toss it into the air and begin battle. "Alright, time to catch a Pokémon! Go, Snivy!" He tossed the Poké Ball into the air as it opened up and let out its stream of light as does all Poké Balls. The flow of energy hit the ground to take the form of a bipedal, reptilian Pokémon with a slender build. As the energy dispersed, the Pokémon is shown to have a green coloring with a cream underside with a large, palmate leaf with three prongs at the end of his tail. The Pokémon had stood with its arms placed at his sides which express his calm, collected demeanor.

Touko then focused her Pokédex to display the entry and record data on Cheren's own Pokémon.

_**Pokédex Entry #001: Snivy – The Grass Snake Pokémon.** _

_**They photosynthesize by bathing their tails in sunlight. When they are not feeling well, their tails droop.** _

_A Pokémon that looks calm on the outside, but stuck up on the inside. Yep, perfect for Cheren._  Touko had thought to herself as she smirked at her thoughts.

The Lilipup had turned towards Snivy as his ears perked and looked at Snivy with a muddled expression, waiting for what Snivy will do.

"The Professor said to weaken it right? I don't have any status inflicting moves, nor do I have any other types of Poké Balls. So, then I'll just have to go for it! Alright Snivy, use Tackle!" Cheren commanded his Pokémon as Snivy dashed forwards and tackled his body right into Lilipup's. As Lilipup was startled at first, and now slightly enraged, he retaliated by tackling back at Cheren's Snivy, knocking Snivy back a bit as Lilipup jumped side to side signaling his now readiness for battle.

Both Touko and Bianca had watched the skinny, black-haired boy command his Pokémon in battle while watching the wild Pokémon fight with sheer determination to win.

"So, this is what battling in the wild is truly like…" Touko couldn't help but stare at the ongoing clash between Lilipup and Snivy.

"Don't give up Snivy, hit it with Tackle once more!" Upon commanding his Pokémon once again, the wild Lilipup took note of Cheren's words and dodged the incoming attack and followed up by tackling Snivy himself which sent Snivy tumbling through the grass. "No! Snivy!" Cheren had rushed to Snivy's side as he kneeled down to check on his Pokémon's condition while Touko and Bianca gasped in shock that the little puppy had just knocked back the reptilian Pokémon so far back.

"Snivy, are you ok?" Cheren was deeply concerned for his Pokémon's health as the little green Pokémon had opened its eyes and smirked to Cheren, indicating that he wouldn't give up as Cheren sighed in relief. "You're a tough one alright, now it's time to end this Snivy." Snivy sprang right back up as he glared towards Lilipup while Lilipup glared right back. Both Pokémon were covered in bruises from being knocked around as both were more determined than ever to take the other one down now.

 _I can't keep just commanding Tackle, Lilipup will know how to counter. So, I guess I have to use other moves._ Cheren thought to himself as he nodded his head in knowing his next command.

"Ok Snivy, use Leer!" Snivy had leered at Lilipup with a fierce look as Lilipup took a few steps back for he was taken aback and shuddered at Snivy's expression. "Good, now his guard is down, finish this with Tackle Snivy!" Taking advantage of the situation, Snivy dashed forward quickly using whatever strength he had left in his little body as he charged right into the unfocused Lilipup and sent him all the way back into a tree. Lilipup had his back slammed right up against the tree as he slowly slid down and fell forward, laying completely flat on his stomach for his legs gave out with his eyes shut close.

"Now's my chance!" Cheren quickly grabbed an empty Poké Ball from within one of his jacket pockets and expanded it as his eyes fixated on Lilipup. "Go, Poké Ball!" He swiftly tossed the Poké Ball right at Lilipup as it nailed Lilipup right on his furry little head as he was sucked into the ball by being transformed into a stream of energy. The ball had closed and landed right on the ground as it shook side to side while beeping, just the same as Juniper's demonstration. All 3 trainers had looked at the shaking ball with anticipation as Cheren was literally sweating at the outcome of the attempted capture. It all came to a close as the ball did its final shake and the Pokémon was officially captured. All 3 of their expressions went from a shock to a joyous cheer as Cheren picked up his Poké Ball and smiled brightly.

"The first Pokémon I've truly ever caught… This is amazing…" Cheren couldn't help but keep smiling at his first major accomplishment within his Pokémon journey.

"Congrats Cheren! I can't wait to capture my first Pokémon too!" Touko congratulated Cheren as she looked up to the sky to picture what her second Pokémon would be.

"Wow Cheren! Congrats congrats! I knew you were gonna be able to do it~!" Bianca was overly-excited over the capture of Cheren's Pokémon, a little too excited actually as this was the first time anyone's ever seen Bianca this overjoyed; let's not also forget that this joy was for Cheren as well.

"Thank you both." Cheren looked at the shiny Poké Ball that held his newly captured Pokémon. He smiled in true happiness. "This is our next step in our journey together guys."

* * *

In the distance, there was a tall, thin young man with fair skin, green eyes and long chartreuse green hair tied into a low fluffy ponytail and shorter pieces framing his face. He donned a white, mid-sleeved shirt with a black shirt under it, a pair of cider green slip on shoes and beige skinny fit pants, with a cube attached to his chain near his left hip; he also wore a black and white bracelet on his right wrist and a yellow rectangular tri-bracelet and a blue and black pendant on a chain around his neck while wearing a white and black hat that covered his lengthy hair.

He was observing the battle between Cheren and the wild Lilipup as he wondered to himself the whole notion of battling. "I'm not quite sure I understand the appeal of these harmless creatures smacking each other around like madmen, but perhaps that's just because I've never experienced it myself." He pulled out a Poké Ball of his own which was already expanded as he turned it side to side while watching it. "Forgive me for containing you in such a horrid device my friend, but maybe you'd like to try this 'Pokémon Battling' yourself? Perhaps you'll express such determined words as that Snivy and Lilipup did." He smiled at the Poké Ball with a friendly gesture as he shrank it and put it back on his belt and began to walk over to Accumula Town.

* * *

As the three new trainers were still huddled around each other, gazing upon Cheren's newly caught Lilipup that which resided in his Poké Ball, Bianca's attention was quickly caught over to a few trainers beginning to rush into Accumula Town. It was then that she remembered about the rest of Juniper's demonstration. "Oh shoot! I almost forgot that Professor Juniper still needs to show us about Pokémon Centers and stuff!"

Touko's attention was caught by Bianca's words as she turned to face Accumula Town. "Aw crap, you're right! We need to get over there right now!"

Cheren looked at Accumula Town, then back to the tall grass which held an abundance of Pokémon. "You both go on ahead. I'm going to stay back and train a bit. I'll catch up when I can."

"Okayyy, that's fine with me but you better catch up Cheren~!" Bianca urging Cheren to catch up quickly.

"Speaking of catching up… Where's Touya? You'd think he'd be caught up to us by now." Touko had wondered where her new brown-haired friend was located. Touya was actually missing for a while now, only last seen on the edge of the lake nearby. Nobody nearby had seen nor looked like him as Touko surveyed the area for him.

"Oooooo~ Hehe, sounds like you miss him already~" Bianca had teased the brunette as payback for being teased earlier.

Touko scoffed once again as she began to laugh hysterically. It's not like she was hiding anything either, she actually doesn't have any feelings towards Touya (yet) aside from her annoyance towards him. "Oh please, miss that clown? He might as well actually become a Mr. Mime as he's a complete joke. I only need him around so that he can see my skills in battle and buy me my lunch." Bianca and Cheren both noticed that she actually didn't like him, of course their thoughts weren't confirmed just yet.

"Jeez, you laugh like you're a Whismur using Uproar. But seriously, we should get going Touko, we're gonna miss ittttt~" Bianca began to step in place as she really wanted to get over to Accumula Town quickly.

Touko had to take a bit of time in order to refocus and compose herself once more as she wiped her eyes of the tears of laughter she had and looked straight at Bianca. "Sorry, sorry Bianca. We should get going. We'll see you soon Cheren!" Both Bianca and Touko began to slightly rush over to Accumula Town as Cheren waved them off.

"I'll be sure to look out for Touya while training." As Cheren slowed the pace of his waving until he stopped and set his arm to his side once more, he heard some running around in the grass to notice a few Patrats and Lilipups around him.

"Perfect." He smirked while taking out both of his Poké Balls that which held both of his 2 Pokémon each. "Let's do this you two." He sent out both his two Pokémon as he began to command attacks to each one in order to battle the Pokémon in the vicinity.

* * *

While Cheren was training his Snivy and Lilipup, both Bianca and Touko had officially made it to Accumula Town and rushed over to the small crowd that which huddled around Professor Juniper.

"Late again I see, Bianca? Touko?" The cheeky Professor had called out the two out of the three new trainers out as the crowd happened to turn around and stare at them. Both girls' faces instantly turned red out of embarrassment as they both looked straight down in an attempt to cover their flustered faces.

"Now don't give them a hard time everyone, you're all still new trainers so it's understandable if we don't all manage our time properly." Juniper attempted to get all of the focus off of Touko and Bianca to ease their embarrassment as everyone turned back to Professor Juniper. "Now, let us all walk over to that building over there with the large, red roof and a Poké Ball design above the doorway."

As everyone walked over to the building, Touko and Bianca there had noticed another crowd slightly forming across the building they were walking towards. The crowding was forming around the raised platform located on the other side of town where two flags were put up that were shaped to look like shields. The colors and designs on said flags were: colored left-half white, right-half black, the letter P and a backwards Z; both the P and the Z were colored to be light-ish blue that turned into a darker shade of blue as it went down. A line of men and women had stood side by side to each other from in between both flags as each of them wore sort of knight-like clothing. They looked like knights from the Middle Ages; they weren't wearing chainmail of course, yet their clothing had strikingly resembled chainmail. In the middle of their entire outfit was the same logo and design seen on the flags.

Upon reaching the building, Juniper turned around and began announcing to everyone what exactly she has brought them to. "And here we are. Now, travelling with your Pokémon is truly one of the joys of being a trainer. While you travel with Pokémon, you'll need to know how to take care of them properly. That is why I have brought you to this place known as a Pokémon Center…"

In the midst of Juniper's announcement, Bianca got a little closer to Touko as she covered her mouth slightly so that her voice would direct to Touko's ears as she began to whisper to Touko. "Hey, you see what's happening across from us, right? What do you think is going on?"

Touko glanced back over at the crowd and platform once more as nothing has changed since they last saw. "I'm not sure, but it's definitely not a fashion show. I'd rather look like a Team Rocket grunt than a Knight at the Round Table."

Both Touko and Bianca shared a faintly quiet laugh with each other before noticing that the crowd they were in was beginning to move up and both girls began to move up as well.

"If you'd all please follow me, I'd like to show you everything about a Pokémon Center and how it all works." Juniper walked up to the entrance of the building where two automatic sliding glass doors opened up for her to enter the building along with everyone else to follow behind.

Once inside, all the new trainers began to gaze around upon the massive room they were just standing in. On the left side was: A plant right next to the doorway, a table and some chairs nearby, and a bookshelf with multiple different colored books. On the right happened to be a blue counter with 2 clerks each standing right and left to the cash register and 2 shelves stocked with items right behind them. In front of everyone was a red counter with a nurse and a large machine that looked to fit 6 Poké Balls in it behind the counter. Next to the counter was a black, white, and light blue PC that looked to have some mechanism regarding Poké Balls. On the right and left of the red counter were stairs that led to some sort of second floor with features on the second floor that don't really matter nowadays.

Juniper inhaled deeply and look to everyone with a nostalgic smile. "Don't you all feel better as soon as you step through the door? Ok, let's start the tour." Juniper began guiding trainers around the Pokémon Center with the first stop being at the red counter in the front.

With everyone crowding around the red counter, Juniper greeted the nurse behind the counter and had a quick, friendly chat with her before turning back to the crowd. "Now everyone, a Pokémon Center is a truly incredible place. Do any of you know why? Because your Pokémon can be healed here due to the help of Nurse Joy here and the incredible machine you see behind her. On that note as well, there is no charge or fee for needing your Pokémon to be healed."

"Oh yeah, this is such a well-paying job for all the nurses in the world." Nurse Joy sarcastically said with the intention of complaint. However, she had to bring herself back to being a joyous nurse once more and smiled at everyone.

Juniper laughed and was going to remark something on Nurse Joy, but held back as she needed to continue her demonstration. "A Pokémon Center is a Trainer's best friend! How about one of you give it a try."

Bianca quickly took Touko's hand and shot it right up. "Touko would like to try~!"

Touko's eyes widened in sudden shock as she tried to pull down or at least pull out of Bianca's grasp and struggled to do so. "H-Hey! Bianca let go!"

"Well of course Touko, come up here at try it." The Professor signaled the crowd to move slight out of the way so that a path to the red counter for Touko opened up.

Touko got irritated as she scowled at Bianca and forced her arm out of Bianca's grasp, which pulled Bianca making her lose balance, before going up to the red counter willingly and looked to Nurse Joy.

Nurse Joy politely and sweetly said the words she had memorized for she had to say this for literally the rest of her life due to her occupation. "Hello, and welcome to the Pokémon Center. We restore your tired Pokémon to full health. Would you like to rest your Pokémon?"

Touko's legs shook slightly in embarrassment and hesitation until she just sighed and expressionlessly said "Yes." Touko took out her one Poké Ball that which held Eevee and smiled at it with her heart beginning to pump quickly as she still cannot believe she has her own Pokémon.

Touko then handed the Pokémon over to Nurse Joy as Nurse Joy gently put the ball onto one of the slots on the large machine that fit the ball perfectly. "Ok, I'll take your Pokémon for a few seconds." The slots that held the Pokémon, the screen above the machine, and the Poké Ball itself all began to flash a few times while a tune played during the flashing. When the tune and flashing stopped, Nurse Joy took the ball out and gently placed it back into the hands of Touko where Touko put the ball back into her pink messenger bag. Nurse Joy smiled brightly at Touko and simply said "Thank you for waiting. We've restored your Pokémon to full health. We hope to see you again!"

Touko's expression went into confusion at those last words.  _"We hope to see you again"? What does she mean by that? Does she want me to fail? Does she want my Pokémon to get hurt? Maybe she does, if I was just standing behind a counter 24/7 I'd go as crazy as a Spinda._

The crowd was quite amused at how the whole healing process worked; some of them even took out their Poké Balls wondering if their Pokémon needed any healing as well.

"Ok. Now that your Pokémon have rested, I'll show you how to use the PC at a Pokémon Center." Juniper pointed at the PC located directly to the left of the red counter where everyone's attention spanned to it.

Everyone walked over as, conveniently, Touko was placed right in front of it. Touko's face just gave off that  _I don't wanna be the center of attention_  vibe while sighing in an unpleased fashion.

"This is the PC. It's free for any trainer to use. You can store Pokémon in your PC Boxes or select Pokémon stored in your PC Boxes to take along with you. In addition, if you catch a new Pokémon while you have six Pokémon travelling with you, the Pokémon you just caught is sent automatically to the PC network!" The crowd was a little rustled with Juniper's words. Many of them wanted to ask how that even works? But Juniper continued without answering any questions. "Surprising, isn't it? Amazing, even. Here's something else that's cool. If you select my PC, I'll evaluate the progress you've made on your Pokédex!" As much enthusiasm put into saying that sentence, Juniper could quickly tell that the crowd didn't really think that was a cool feature. They all had Xtransceivers along with Professor Juniper's number, so they all thought it was a little lame.

As everyone's attention spanned to different things after the Professor's last sentence, Bianca raised her and asked, "Professor, it says "Someone's PC" on the screen. Who is Someone?" which got everyone's attention back onto the topic.

Juniper quickly responded. "Very good, Bianca. That's a great observation!" Even though Juniper was genuinely praising her for her keen eye, in reality she was just happy that Bianca asked that because she didn't want people to sway their attention from her demonstration. Since she wanted to bring everyone back to the demonstration and move on, Juniper just said, "Good question, and I'd like to say more but for now, just ignore that and go ahead and use the PC. 'Someone' is the person who made the Pokémon Storage System… Someone I'm sure you'll meet someday! Ok, let's move on!"

Bianca was still pretty dumbfounded on the topic of her question, but she assumed that was the best answer she was going to get even though Juniper barely answered it. Juniper waved her right hand quickly to signal everyone to follow her as she guided them to the last stop which was where the blue counter is located. "Now, this is the Poké Mart. This is the place to buy useful items and sell the ones you don't need anymore! That gentleman over there will help you with a smile." Juniper pointed to the man on the left side of the cash register from the crowd's point of view.

 _I feel like everyone here is forced to smile. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that the staff here are all a bunch of Gengars._  Touko just kept her thoughts rolling; she could be a pretty judgmental person when it came to stuff she didn't quite understand.

"So, let's wrap this up. I've given you all the basics of being a Trainer! I'm going to head back to Nuvema Town. When all of you get to Striaton City, go and meet an inventor named Fennel. She's a friend of mine from long ago, and I'm sure she'll help you all on your way!" Juniper put on her most ecstatic and friendliest expression for her final words. "Best of luck to you all! I hope that your journeys prove to be the adventure of a lifetime!" The crowd all cheered for each other and their upcoming journeys as every trainer within the crowd had all said their byes to Juniper as she walked out of the Pokémon Center with the automatic sliding doors closing behind her.

* * *

The crowd then split for the final and last time. Some went around the Pokémon Center trying to find their friends or just to relax before heading out, others went up to the Poké Mart in order to buy a few things for their journeys, and the last portion headed right out and exited the Pokémon Center; however, all of those who exited first stopped as they turned and looked towards the other side of town to where Touko assumed was the platform she noticed earlier. With those other trainers now heading off to the crowd surrounding the platform, Touko's curiosity peaked as she wanted to find out what was going off herself and turned to Bianca to ask if she wanted to go out too.

"Hey Bianca, do you wanna go check out what's happening outsi…" Touko's words were stopped as she noticed that Bianca was deep into shopping for what she wanted from the Poké Mart

"Ooh! What should I buy? Potions and Poké Balls are definitely important. Ummm… thinking…" Bianca was fiercely scanning the displays behind the glass along with the shelves behind the clerks as her eyes sparkled at the sight of all the items.

 _You never change Bianca, hahah._  Touko thought and smiled in amusement to the blondie's desires as she turned back to the glass doors that showed outside and noticed even more people walking over to the crowd.  _I want to find out what's happening too…_  Touko followed her thoughts as she walked out the Pokémon Center and turned to her right to see the massive crowd formed around the raised platform.

"Sounds like something's going on in the plaza!" A random man nearby Touko exclaimed to his friend.

"Well, let's have a little look-see." The man's older friend suggested to him as both men walked over to the huge crowd to squeeze right in.

Touko followed behind the two men to the plaza before getting into the crowd herself and noticing that Cheren is here as well. "Cheren! You all done training? What's going o-"

Touko was quickly stopped by Cheren's words. "Shhhh. Touko, come here for a sec."

Touko stood next to Cheren to look up and watch the platform to see that everything's the same until one knight-looking man stepped out of the way to allow a different man in robe-like clothing to step forward in front of all the knight-looking men and women and the two flags. The man who just stepped in front was quite old-looking with red eyes and long, green pale hair with two locks of it sticking out by his eyes. He was wearing a red eyepiece over his right eye and his right hand is hidden in his robes while his left hand is shown. He has two additional locks of hair, which slide down to his shoulders. His robe was colored white with an elaborately designed brown piece with blue rectangles above it, holding a two-toned cloak with eye patterns above his robe; the left side of his cloak is purple while the right is yellow. He's also wearing brown loafers and the logo and design shown on the flags was located right below the collar of his cloak.

The robed man began to speak with a serious tone. "My name is Ghetsis. I am here representing Team Plasma. Today, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to talk to you about Pokémon Liberation."

The crowd looked around with confused and dazed looks. "Huh?" "What?" were the primary things people were saying when first hearing about this "Pokémon Liberation" topic.

Ghetsis walked towards the right side of the crowd from Touko's point of view and stood in front of that portion of people and spoke to the in the same tone. "I'm sure most of you believe that we humans and Pokémon are partners that have come to live together because we want and need each other." Ghetsis's tone then shifted to a more compelling one, presumably to be more persuasive to the crowd. "However… Is that really the truth? Have you ever considered that perhaps we humans… only assume that this is the truth?"

A bit of chatter arose from within the crowd after those words. Some denied his claims, saying that it is the truth, however others wanted to listen more on the subject.

Ghetsis walked back to place himself to the middle of the platform once more to speak to the whole crowd clearly. "Pokémon are subject to the selfish commands of Trainers… They get pushed around when they are our 'partners' at work… Can anyone say with confidence that there is no truth in what I'm saying?"

The crowd looked at each other once more, most of the crowd now questioning whether or not the statements made by Ghetsis are truthful or not. "No way." "I don't know…" "Yikes!" are all what could be heard from within the crowd this time.

The crowd refocused as they watched Ghetsis walk down to the left side of the crowd which is still based off of Touko's point of view. "Now, ladies and gentlemen, Pokémon are different from humans. They are living beings that contain unknown potential. They are living beings from whom we humans have much to learn. Tell me, what is our responsibility toward these wonderful beings called Pokémon?

After hearing all of this so far, the crowd seems to be fully on the side of questioning their own morals, justifications, and necessities for what they should do for their Pokémon. Some are actually going along with Ghetsis's words as they agree with everything he's said thus far. Cheren and Touko don't agree with what he's saying as they figure that he doesn't have a passion for Pokémon as much as they do, but of course they aren't going to speak out against him and make a fool of themselves.

* * *

Back on Route 1, a brown-haired and now ecstatic trainer has just emerged from the trees as he held a fresh Poké Ball in his hand, smiling widely at the sight of it while holding it up in the air just like that one scene from the Luxray King where the Infernape lifted the Shinx into the sun and told him that "Everything the light touches is your kingdom."

"I can't believe I caught it! This is quite the rare find, who knew I'd be able to run into one of these so fast? It was tough too, every single wild Pokémon would attack us out of nowhere, eh buddy?" Touya pulled out another Poké Ball which wasn't as brand-new or shiny as the other one which presumably indicated that it held his first Pokémon. "But at least you got a lot of training out of it, so I bet you're super strong now!" Touya smirked to the side as he just reminded himself of the deal he made. "Heheh, you're about to be owing me that lunch soon Touko."

Touya put the two Pokémon away by shrinking them and attaching it onto his belt as he intertwined his fingers and faced both of his palms away from himself as he stretched his arms and turned his neck side to side in order to crack it. "Whelp, I guess I better catch up with those 3 now. They should be done with Juniper's entire demonstration so we can all head out to Route 2 together." Touya happily smiled at the thought of travelling with others throughout his journey as he walked upwards through the route. He noticed that there was actually nobody on the route as of the moment, not even any of the new trainers that was with Juniper's group.

"Huh, that's… weird. Where is everyone?" Upon coming up to the end of the route and the entrance to Accumula Town, the first thing that caught his attention was the massive crowd that was surrounding the platform in the plaza. "What's going on over there?" Touya's face showed curiosity along with suspicion as he walked slowly to the presentation occurring in the plaza. He noticed that Touko and Cheren were amidst the crowd, however he casually walked past them and tried to stay near the back.

As Touya walked through, Ghetsis's words became clearer for him to hear as Ghetsis was finishing up his presentation of Pokémon Liberation to the people. "That's right! We must liberate the Pokémon! Then, and only then, will humans and Pokémon truly be equals. Everyone, I end my words here today by imploring you to consider the relationship between people and Pokémon… and the correct way to proceed. We sincerely appreciate your attention."

As Ghetsis finished, the two Team Plasma Grunts that were standing directly next to the flags picked them up as all the grunts lined up in a certain order. All of them turned to their left as the 3 in the front stepped to their left and the 3 in the back stepped to their right while the one in the middle stepped forward so that Ghetsis could step behind him. Then the 3 grunts who stepped to their left moved back to be on Ghetsis's left side while the 3 grunts who stepped to their right moved forward to be on Ghetsis's right side so that Ghetsis would be surrounded by the grunts with only having his back be exposed. They then all walked accordingly to follow Ghetsis's steps as all the grunts and Ghetsis stepped off of the platform. After stepping off, all of them looked to their left as the now 3 grunts in front and the grunt on the side of Ghetsis moved forward first while Ghetsis and the 3 grunts behind him followed shortly after so that all of them could exit by going through Route 2.

The crowd then turned to each other for one final time as Touya, Touko, and Cheren all listened in on what they were discussing.

"About that speech… What do you think we should do?" An older man from within the crowd asked.

"Liberate Pokémon? That's not even possible!" A younger man shouted to the whole crowd in response to Ghetsis's speech. And with that note, the people scattered off from the crowd with all of them going in different directions.

While the whole crowd was walking away, Touko stayed to talk with Cheren regarding the speech. "What do you make of that Cheren?"

"Of that old man's bickering? He should understand that just as we choose our Pokémon, Pokémon choose us to be their friends." As a young, long haired man had overheard that statement by Cheren by which he got interested. Touya stayed by to watch the crowd discuss and argue over the topic as he then perked his attention to the young man that stayed behind as well.

"You're right. All Pokémon make their own decisions, we as trainers would never do anything to harm our partners, our friends. Our Pokémon show us their feelings through their time with us, and clearly they enjoy being around us as much as they can." Touko wholeheartedly responded.

Both Touko and Cheren smiled at both their remarks as the young man approached the both of them and spoke quickly, mainly to Touko. "Your Pokémon… Just now, it was saying…"

"Slow down. You talk too fast." Cheren needing to perfect the young man's speech in order to understand him. "And what's this about Pokémon… talking? That's an odd thing to say."

"Yes, they're talking." The young man waited a bit with a slightly confused look at Touko and Cheren before realizing that they couldn't hear Pokémon talking like he can. "Oh. Then, you two can't hear it, either… How sad."

He readjusted himself and his expression before talking again. "My name is N."

"My name is Cheren, and this is Touko." Cheren directed his hand to Touko to introduce her as well.

"Hello there N. It's nice to meet you and know that you can listen to Pokémons'… words?" Touko was still shaken on what N was discussing earlier.

"Touko and I were asked to complete the Pokédex as we left on our journeys, however I strive to become Champion instead." Cheren said with utmost confidence in himself.

"The Pokédex, eh?" N's expression turned into a dissatisfied and disappointed look. "So… You're going to confine many, many Pokémon in Poké Balls for that, then."

"What? I wouldn't say confine them in Poké Balls, but I'd say getting to make new friends and discover new bonds." Touko slightly argued against N's words while Touya was watching and overhearing this commotion go down.

"I see…" N did not want to retaliate further with the brunette. "Do not misunderstand me, I'm a Trainer as well, but I can't help wondering… Are Pokémon really happy that way?" N expressed those words with a much more aggressive tone.

N then fidgeted with his own cap before walking a little closer to Touko and leaning down a bit so that their faces were almost touching. Touya's eyebrows raised a little as he walked towards N, Touko, and Cheren while both Touko and N were glaring at each other with a ferocious determination to battle with one another.

"Well, Touko, is it?" N took a few steps back and stood straight again while grabbing the Poké Ball from his belt and expanding it while holding the back of it so the front faces opposite from him. He then raised his arm to have it and his Poké Ball face towards Touko while smiling with a resolute expression. "Let me hear your Pokémon's voice again!"

"You're so on!" Touko competitively retaliated to N's want for battle.

Touko went to reach for the Poké Ball that contained Eevee until she was stopped by Touya who stepped in between N and Touko with his hands in his pockets and his cap positioned so you barely see his eyes under the shade of his top. "Woah there, you're going to challenge a girl who's probably never battled before? That seems like quite the unfair advantage."

"What the- Touya!?" Touko was stunned to see him here, she thought he was already on Route 2 by this point since he wasn't visibly present on Route 1.

"Ah, Touya, so you're back now." Cheren blankly said.

"Yeah, I got caught up trying to chase after something. But now I'm here, and quite willing to battle actually." Touya smirked to N as Touya also had his Poké Ball ready for battle.

"Wait, what!? Hold on, N challenged me to battle and I'm no noob to ba-"

Touko was cut off as N began to speak. "I remember seeing you on Route 1, you do have quite the passion for Pokémon from what I saw. I noticed how in sync you and your Pokémon were as you both were dashing through the trees and fighting wild Pokémon."

"You saw just that? Then you saw nothing, I'll show you what me and my Pokémon can really do together as partners. 1-on-1." Touya raised his Poké Ball to go against N's while lifting his cap's top in order to display his eyes, fierce for battle.

N smirked back upon hearing those words as he was willing to battle Touya. "Alright Touya, let me hear what your Pokémon's voice is saying!"

"I'll let you hear my Pokémon's voice and more, let's do this Oshawott!" And with that note, Touya turned his arm upside down and tossed his Poké Ball into the air. As the Poké Ball opened from the center and fell back down into Touya's palm, the stream of energy came out and began to form a shape on the ground like always; this time it looked to be the shape of an otter-like creature. As the energy dispersed, it came out to be exactly that; it was an otter-like Pokémon with a spherical white head with small, triangular dark-blue ears on the sides. Its eyes are dark and its dark orange nose is shaped like a horizontal oval with freckles covering its cheeks. The light blue fur on its body forms bubble shapes around its neck and its arms are white and rounded, while its feet are dark blue with three toes each. Lastly, it possessed a rudder-like dark blue tail and a yellow seashell on its belly. The little otter was focused and confident as it stood up straight and looked towards N with a vicious look for battle.

Touko was shaken by Touya's Oshawott; it wasn't just because she'd never seen any of his Pokémon before, but also because his Oshawott had the same vibe that he was getting from Touya – a deep determination for battle. She then realized that that was a Pokémon she didn't have recorded in her Pokédex and quickly took it out, directing it towards Oshawott.

_**Pokédex Entry #007: Oshawott – The Sea Otter Pokémon.** _

_**The scalchop on its stomach is made from the same element as claws. It detaches the scalchop for use as a blade.** _

"Ah, so that's where that third Pokémon went to." Cheren calmly stated.

"Eh? What do you mean Cheren?" Touko directed her attention and curiosity to Cheren now.

"Well, when Bianca and I first got to Professor Juniper's lab, we had assumed we were the first ones there as nobody else was around the lab. However, when we arrived we had found out that somebody had gotten there first and took one of the 3 main starters that are usually given to beginning trainers: Snivy, Tepig, and Oshawott." Cheren was fixing his glasses while stating that.

"Hold on just a minute, you and Bianca went out to get Pokémon almost before anyone else and didn't bother to wake me up!?" Touko was furious at Cheren and indirectly at Bianca too.

"W-Well…" Cheren tried to play it off by looking the other way and whistling; however, when he turned back to see Touko become so furious that she looked like she was about to use Flame Wheel on him, he knew he wasn't going to get out of this easily. "I mean, we didn't know when you were going to wake up or if you were going to wake up at all. And Bianca and I wanted to make sure we got our Pokémon so… we kind of just got our Pokémon and went back when we could. To be fair, we were right as right after we got our Pokémon, just about every single new trainer in town lined up to get one from Professor Juniper too. Plus, you do sleep like a Snorlax so…"

Cheren could easily feel like he was about to get Double Slapped by Touko, and she was about to as she had her right arm held up to the level of his face and her right palm turned so that it was facing his face as she was ready to swing for his cheek. Yet, she stopped because she became refocused on the battle between N and Touya since N was about ready to toss out his Pokémon.

"I hear your Pokémon's words, he's quite eager to engage in a battle against mine. And I shall respond to him by sending mine out. Come to me my friend, Zorua!" N had thrown his Poké Ball upwards with a sidespin, and upon stopping it shot out the stream of energy before falling back down into N's palm. What came out of the ball was a slate gray, fox-like Pokémon with red and black accents. Its ears are triangular with dark insides, and it has a large tuft of fur tipped with red on top of its head as well as greenish blue eyes with red eyelids. There are circular, red markings above the eyes that resemble eyebrows and a ruff of black fur around its neck and four short limbs tipped with red with its tail short and bushy.

As Touko was fixated on the two trainers, Cheren realized that he wasn't about to be pimp slapped and directed his attention towards the battle as well. He was amazed upon seeing Zorua. "Woah, that's a Zorua? Those are so rare though."

"Zorua?" Touko, still holding her Pokédex in her left hand, directed the Pokédex towards N's Pokémon.

_**Pokédex Entry #076: Zorua – The Tricky Fox Pokémon.** _

_**To protect themselves from danger, they hide their true identities by transforming into people and Pokémon.** _

"A Zorua? Those are extremely rare because they're always hiding. Where'd you find one?" Touya was very interested in Zorua as his expression lit up upon seeing him.

"It's not that I found him, it's how he found me. He called out to me, spoke to me." N stated with fixed hostility towards Touya after his remark; he assumed that Touya would attempt to "confine" a Zorua himself for his own selfish needs of "catching them all."

"I still don't understand what you mean by Pokémon 'speaking' or 'talking' to you. Do you mean their cries?" Touya, along with Cheren and Touko, were all unable to comprehend N's ability to or knowledge of hearing Pokémon's words.

"Perhaps if you'll listen to this battle closely enough, you'll hear their voices loud and clear!" N's eyes locked onto Touya's with a tenacious will for battle and slight resentment towards Touya.

"Zorua, use Fury Swipes!" N's Zorua charged briskly at Touya's Oshawott with slight claws emerging from his paws. Zorua then jumped into the air and began charging downwards towards Oshawott with his claws out in front of him ready to swipe at Oshawott.

Touya focalized on the battle once more as he rapidly commanded Oshawott. "Oshawott, counter with Water Gun!" Oshawott aimed right for Zorua as he blasted a forceful shot of water right at Zorua.

N looked to Zorua and nodded in agreement with his Pokémon. "Swipe the water Zorua!" And with that, right as the Water Gun was about to hit Zorua, he began swiping with fury at the water shooting against him which greatly lessened the effect of water gun. As Oshawott slowly ended his Water Gun until he had nothing left to shoot, Zorua swiped away the last bit of water before coming back down towards Oshawott. "Now use Fury Swipes on Oshawott!" Zorua almost rocketed down right to Oshawott as he landed claw first right onto Oshawott, furiously swiping away at Oshawott as Oshawott had no time to react to dodge and Touya couldn't react to call out a move.

"Oshawott! No!" Touya gritted in teeth in desperate worry for Oshawott, which N took note of as his resentment for Touya went down a little. "Get Zorua off of you using Water Gun!" Oshawott endured the swipes harshly as he gained up enough energy for another water gun and opened his mouth to unleash it. Zorua, still swiping away at Oshawott, didn't realize the incoming move fast enough as Oshawott forcibly expelled a shot of water right into Zorua's face; Zorua was immediately shot right off of Oshawott as he went flying all the way back close to N's feet. N rushed to his Pokémon's side to look over and see if he's ok.

"Zorua! How are you feeling!?" Zorua opened his eyes with a mischievous smirk, indicating he was still pumped and ready to fight; N was entirely relieved to see his precious friend. He jumped right up and scowled at Oshawott with a fierce expression. Oshawott got right back on his feet, meeting Zorua's scowl with a glare of equal ferocity.

Touya looked to N with a friendly smile and an amazed expression. "That was amazing how you thought of that plan to swipe the water. I would've never thought of that. You're a really skilled trainer."

N responded to his expression with his own slightly dissatisfied ones. "So, you still can't hear it? The Pokémon's voices? For it was Zorua that displayed his idea to swipe the water to me, I had only agreed to it. They are much smarter than you think."

"Seriously, what is this talking Pokémon thing you have in your head? It's making me more confused than a Psyduck." Touya's brain was unable to comprehend N's "ability" at all.

"It's because you bark your commands at your Pokémon. You Trainers don't let them do the talking." N retaliated at Touya with stronger aggressiveness.

"But that doesn't make any sense, we rely on Pokémon to perform the tasks we ask of them to do as much as they rely on us to work together to get through such a task. We aren't barking our commands, we're expressing our bonds. We're expressing our friendships. We're expressing our passions." Touya came back at N with words that were put forth with deep emotion. Touya put his heart out in saying that, and he didn't even realize it.

N was stirred slightly.  _We rely on Pokémon as much as Pokémon rely on us? Through such means of… battling… both Pokémon and Trainer express bonds, friendships, and passions?_  Touya's words were bouncing all around in N's head.  _Why… What does this all mean…?_

Touko's face had turned into a mix of shock and awe. What Touya just said was something she could deeply relate to. With just those simple words, Touko felt a stronger bond between the two. She felt a little respect towards him, and was looking at Touya with admiration. She held her right arm horizontally up to her chest as her left hand held her right wrist and her right hand was turned into a fist. She heard her heart beat quickly because this is the exact same passion she felt for Pokémon. She felt as if a revelation had opened up before her.

N brought himself back to the battle as he simply sighed and looked at Touya with a smile. "Alright then, show me your views Touya. Express all of them within this battle. And perhaps you'll see mine as well."

Touya smiled back while fixing his cap, readying himself once again for the rest of the battle. "That's the way I like to do things. Let's keep this going then. Oshawott, use Focus Energy!" Oshawott took in a deep breath as he began to focus all the energy within his body to enhance his senses and ready himself to land stronger attacks.

Zorua turned back to N for they both nodded in agreement. "Alright Zorua, do it! Use Hone Claws!" Zorua's claws shined greatly for they began to become sharper and more accurate.

"Now, while Zorua's using Hone Claws, hit him with Water Gun!" Oshawott focused his energy into the water beginning to expel from his mouth. He then let out a forceful shot of water like last time; however, the shot this time was more focused onto a single point of Zorua in order to impact him greater.

"Zorua, use Feint Attack before it hits you!" Zorua moved so quickly that nobody around him could see where he went with the Water Gun missing just as Zorua moved around the battlefield. Zorua then appeared right behind Oshawott without him noticing.

"Ah, if only you all could hear what the Pokémon were saying." N exemplified his words to express his feelings of the Pokémon's voices.

* * *

**What N was hearing from Zorua and Oshawott:**

_As Zorua appeared behind Oshawott._

**Zorua:**   _Omae wa mou shindeiru._

 **Oshawott:** _Nani!?_

* * *

With Oshawott caught completely off guard, Zorua struck him with a harsh blow using his sharpened and honed claws. Oshawott was blasted hard into a nearby wall, causing a small, cracked crater to form on the wall from Oshawott. Oshawott was in a slight daze, along with being dizzy from all the attacks it was taking.

"Agh, no! Oshawott!" Now it was Touya who ran after his knocked back Pokémon, taking off his cap as he looked over his deeply injured Pokémon. Oshawott was on the verge of fainting while Touya was providing shade for the little otter Pokémon using his body as the sun beat on his back as if it were using Will-O-Wisp on him.

Touya couldn't stand to see his Pokémon be so battered down, he was on the verge of tears at this point now from seeing his Pokémon struggle greatly and end up so beaten up.

N was struck to see this event taking place.  _In a world where Trainers capture Pokémon and make them fight each other senselessly, there are people who do treat Pokémon as family?_

Touko gasped and astoundingly covered her mouth. She watched Touya's little Pokémon with bruises and scratches all over as he wheezed for air. She couldn't stand to watch and turned away with her eyes closed. Cheren was gritting his teeth as he looked towards Oshawott and Touya with calm panic for the two, wanting to do something for Oshawott but knew he couldn't.

Then N looked at Cheren and Touko, with his struck expression still remaining on his face.  _And not even just the Trainer of the Pokémon, but those close to the Trainer as well…?_

Touya decided in his mind, he didn't want to keep putting all this pressure on Oshawott. "It's decided N, Oshawott has fai-" Before Touya could finish his sentence, Oshawott began to stand up slowly. His entire body was in shambles, limbs were shaking and his expression looked as if he was on the verge of collapsing. Touya looked in heavy sorrow and despair for Oshawott as his Pokémon used his diminishing energy to get back up for his Trainer. "Oshawott please, you don't have to-"

Oshawott put his weak, wobbly paw up in front of his Trainer's face, trying to tell him not to worry. Oshawott swayed side to side while walking back towards the main battlefield between him and Zorua. He closed his eyes, inhaled deeply, and put on a vicious look upon letting out a loud and roaring cry to Zorua. Oshawott was not going to give up. Not now. Not ever.

"Oshawott…" It was no longer despair that Touya had felt, but rather wonderment upon watching the Pokémon get back up after so many drastic hits he's taken. He felt what his Pokémon wanted to do. Oshawott wanted to truly end this battle.

"Oshawott won't stay down. I can hear his voice. He wants to be the last one standing." N remarked to Touya who looked determined to finish this battle as well.

"I know, I can… understand his intentions." Touya closed his eyes and focused on his Pokémon with Oshawott doing the same and focusing on his Trainer.

N was in astonishment. "You can hear him too now!?"

"No, I can't hear his voice. But I can tell, within both of us, that neither one of us want to lose!" Touya opened his eyes along with Oshawott opening them at the same time. Both Trainer and Pokémon had put on a face full of willpower; both aspired to be the victors.

Touko overheard Touya's words as she turned back around in cheerfulness, her eyes tearing up from seeing Oshawott be struck down before. Her hands clasped together and her heart beat wildly to see the determination of both Touya and Oshawott. Cheren smiled with a reassured look and perked up his glasses and now had his full, undivided attention all towards the battle.

"Well, it's not the way I am capable of hearing my Pokémon, but perhaps it is yours through your… bond between Trainer and Pokémon as you called it?" N had questioned, yet didn't get a voiced answer. However, he could feel the intensity between both Touya and Oshawott that it was definitely a yes.

"Then show me your bond! Let me experience it firsthand and express to me what you and your Pokémon feel! Zorua, finish this! Faint Attack!" With agile movements, Zorua began darting around the battlefield while this time Oshawott tried to keep a steady eye on his opponent, making sure not to let down his guard this time if he can.

Touya began to speak in a calm, collected manner. "Oshawott, I need you to focus. Keep your mind steady on Zorua. You don't need to look for him, but listen for his movements." Oshawott heeded his Trainer's words and closed his eyes slowly, using his ears to listen closely to Zorua's movements as Oshawott heard Zorua running around in circles, surrounding him. "Then, when the time is right, unleash everything you have into using it." Oshawott, with eyes still closed, nodded in agreement with Touya and took the scalchop off his belly using his right paw. Oshawott extended his arm outwards while holding the tip of the scalchop, letting the front of it face away from him.

Oshawott kept listening to the swift feet of Zorua circling him, keeping track of where his feet are at every second. Zorua then lunged forwards straight at Oshawott with his claws protruding from his paws for a directed attack at Oshawott.

"Oshawott, end it now! Use Razor Shell!" Oshawott's scalchop produced a sharp stream of water that which made it look like a blade. Focusing all the energy he's stored up, he sharpens the blade-like shell as Oshawott turned towards the direction of where he heard Zorua's sprinting suddenly shift towards him which was to his right. Oshawott extended the Razor Shell to his right and lunged forwards at Zorua with incredible speed as well. As both Pokémon seemingly struck each other at the same time, yet their movements were too quick to see any attacks occur from either Pokémon. They both landed behind each other and face forward, not looking back. The final and last strike to end the battle had become a Single Stroke Battle.

* * *

(Note: If you don't know what a Single Stroke Battle is, look it up and you'll understand the picture I'm kind of trying to make here.)

* * *

N, Cheren, Touko, and especially Touya watched in suspense of which Pokémon will stay standing and which Pokémon will fall.

Oshawott then did a cheeky little smirk and withdrew his Razor Shell, letting the sharp stream of water disperse and twirled his scalchop until he put it back on his belly. He then turned around and did an honorary bow to his opponent as Zorua fell right down, crashing onto the concrete. Zorua's eyes were swirled as the Pokémon was knocked unconscious, indicating that Zorua had fainted.

Touya rejoiced in utter joy for his Pokémon, his face brightening so much you'd think he would start using Solarbeam. He sprinted over to Oshawott and held him up high while hugging him and celebrating his victory with him. "Oshawott! We did it! We won our first battle!" Oshawott couldn't contain himself either, even though he was still in pain from battle. Oshawott had the biggest smile on his face and hugged his Trainer back with glory bursting inside of him.

* * *

(Another Note: I don't really know how to explain the expression I'm trying to make for Oshawott, so if you've ever watched the main Pokémon Anime of when they're in Unova, think about Ash's Oshawott being happy and that's what I'm trying to go for.)

* * *

Touko and Cheren instantly became utterly ecstatic as both of them ran up to Touya and began celebrating with him. Cheren kept his snobbish-like attitude with a smirk while Touko looked up to Touya with inspiration and delight.

"You had me worried there for a few seconds Touya, but of course you wouldn't have lost." Cheren looked to Touya with a content face.

"I just about cried you know!? I was so worried that Oshawott was going to end up in the Pokémon Center for days…" Touko lifted her hand and ever so gently petted Oshawott's bruised white head. Oshawott quite enjoyed the comfort of the young brunette caring for him so much, he also looked up at Touya as he cared all the same.

"That… actually does mean a lot to me that you cared so much for Oshawott. Thank you Touko…" He gave a genuinely happy smile to Touko with Touko slightly blushing at Touya. A boy, or rather anybody in general, had never acted this way towards her before.

"I'll be sure to shed the same number of tears at your first Trainer battle. That is, tears of laughter at seeing you get beaten." And as the moment just about got ruined by Touya, Cheren stepped to the side and ducked slightly to avoid being hit. Touko had her first ready and aching to sock the living Distortion World out of Touya as Touya smirked at Touko. He liked teasing her, it allowed the two to convey their feelings of Pokémon to each other.

N had no other expression on his face but a satisfactory smile and closed eyes. He calmly walked over to his Zorua and picked him up like a baby, cradling Zorua in his arms. Zorua faintly opened his eyes to see the face of his friend. "You were the most spirited I've ever seen you today my friend. You looked like you really had a lot of fun." Zorua smiled a little weakly as he rubbed his head up against N's chest.

N had looked up at the 3 celebrating Trainers afterwards, keeping that smile on his face while walking over to them. "I never expected to hear Pokémon say such things…"

The 3 Trainers turned around and all greeted back N with a smile as well. "Pokémon Battling can bring out a Pokémon's true spirit. Then and only then will they express all the feelings they have inside them." Touya responded in the most honest way he could regarding his passions.

Although happy to hear that, N's expression dropped to a serious and slightly more dissatisfied one. "My point still stands, however…"

The 3 Trainers become instantly curious as to why the sudden change in tone for N.

"As long as Pokémon are confined in Poké Balls… Pokémon will never become perfect beings." N looked at the 3 with a committed manner on his mind.

Touko tried to cry out and get her words out. "But nobody is perfect, that's why we have each oth-" She got cut off by N just like last time.

"I have to change the world for Pokémon, because they're my friends." After stating that, N then had begun to walk off towards the exit of town.

Touko didn't want to hold her thoughts in any longer. "N!"

N had to hold himself and stop to turn his head slightly, not directly looking at Touko, but enough to give indication of listening to her.

"Pokémon and Humans will never be perfect! Nothing ever will be, it's a complete impossibility! But that's why we have each other always by our sides! Pokémon and Human Beings together take each other to greater heights! They're our partners!" Touko had exclaimed out the words coming from her feelings so loud that the whole town could hear her. People from over at Route 2 or even all the way back to Nuvema Town were probably able to hear her.

To N, these words struck him hard. And as much as he wanted to say back, he decided to leave with two questions. He turned around and looked forward at all 3 Trainers. "Hey, I have something to ask all 3 of you."

Touko, Cheren, and Touya all stood on standby and listened closely for N's question.

"What is the Truth? And why are there Ideals?" N asked that question solely for the purpose of their answer.

Where Cheren was thinking like a rocket scientist about that question, Touko and Touya said their answers with their earnest feelings.

"Perhaps we don't know the answers to those yet. However, if we ever do find out, let's find out together N." Touko smiled in joy at her response.

"And maybe we aren't finding an answer for Truth and an answer for Ideals, however it is Truth and Ideals that we must find as one." Touya felt satisfactory about his words as both Touya and Touko looked to each other and smiled at each other's words.

N looked down and perceived the brown-haired teenager's replies. "Together… and as one…" He nodded and looked to both Touko and Touya with a smile before continuing to walk off towards Route 2 with his Zorua still in his arms.

This was their next stop in their journey. With all 4 Trainers all caught up with each other – Bianca is still shopping, by the way – they'll continue their path onwards throughout the Unova region. Will they find the answers that were sought after by N? Find the answers to Truth and/or Ideals? Or will they open their eyes to see the crises occurring all over the region? They have just begun their journeys, but a beginning never lasts in stories.

* * *

Whelp, I'm back. I began writing this a week ago, so that Author's Note up there is from a week ago. At this point I haven't updated in about 3 weeks, so I might as well make it up to you guys by making a second chapter that's pretty much longer than twice of the first chapter.

I probably could've written this whole thing in 2-3 days if I actually completely focused on it. However, there were quite the amount of… bumps that occurred. I was ¼ done with this on last Saturday, then I got extremely sick and was bedridden for the next 3 days. That was mainly because I couldn't miss the SAT on last Wednesday, which wasn't that bad. But yeah, had to rest for all that time so that was lost.

Then when I got home from SATs, I more or less collapsed. So that was about 4 days I didn't work on this. You can probably tell that I busted my ass off for Thursday and Friday to get this done. I'm happy I did too.

I probably could've cut this a lot shorter if I wanted to. I didn't need to include the tutorial (since everyone basically already knows how the damn game works), but I might as well since I'm trying to follow the main story as much as possible. Plus, it lets me put in more character and personality into Cheren, Bianca, and Juniper, which I wanted to do since I focused far too much on Touko last time.

If you guys see the chapter calling any Pokémon an it, itself, its, it's, etc. that's because I was originally going to just call Pokémon it and such, however I decided on giving them all genders since I gave Eevee one last chapter.

So yeah, I really hope you guys enjoyed this one as I tried not to rush it at all and put a boatload of details into this (even those most were really repetitive, I know and I'm sorry. I tried to use synonyms instead, but there's only so many out there.) I'm gonna go off to bed cause it's 12 AM and I'm sleepy. I can probably get another one up this weekend since I won't be doing much, so that'll be a treat. For you guys, not for me haha. Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter and stay hyped for the next.

As always, this is your lazy, sleepy Author Kydran going to eat some Pizza Rolls and then going to sleep.


End file.
